Artist Trading Cards for Harry Potter, Book 4

HP4 Cover ATC
Originally uploaded by CreativeExile.

Otherwise known as "ATCs," I had a burst of creativity the night of my birthday (okay, a large mocha at 4p helped...a lot...) and stayed up until 2a creating these. The first one is my "cover card," explaining the set. The rest are themed out by the schools participating in the Triwizard Tournament and the tests that make up the Tournament. I made three identical sets of cards, for trading, so if you're reading this and you've done any HP ATCs and want to trade, let me know!

I had spent the day at the rubber stamp store in Northville. They are consolidating their scrapbook store next door, and had a ton of sale stamps. I spend a couple of HOURS wading through bins of wood-mounted stamps, and ended up with many that reflected the world of Harry Potter. No big surprise, since I'm on to Book 5 now. I've even been having Harry Potter-themed dreams, which is almost enough to make me stop reading. Really. I need to stop.

I used the fonts "Lumos" and "Michaelmas" -- both free downloads somewhere out there -- and the Adobe Pagemaker software that I love for graphic design (I had to - quickly - teach myself the software years ago when I suddenly found myself editor of a newsletter for a real estate association with 3,000+ members...GULP).

I cut the cream-colored cardstock down to 2"x3" cards, which I mounted on 2 1/4" x 3 1/4" mats, then on the final 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" ATC (which happens to be baseball-card size, as are all ATCs).

These were a lot of fun to create. Enjoy.